Let’s escape, for just a few moments, to the cliffs that sit high to the eastern edge of Capri. It’s where the tourists don’t tend to quite reach and it’s here where one of the most wonderful jewel-like villas sits.

Image credit: Port of Capri, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

I detoured from Rome on a specific mission to seek out this magical looking white villa. A home, built in 1905, which I had heard about more than once through the grapevine.

Image credit: Pathways to Lysis, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

You have to travel by boat to Capri, but that’s just half the journey if you want to reach Villa Lysis, which its owner coined as being ‘Dedicated to the youth of love’. After a rather nightmarish boat trip (rough seas from the moment we left Naples) I caught sight of a precarious looking building clinging on to the cliff edge of the island. It was Villa Lysis. Glimmering in the midday sun against the Azur Blue sky.

Image credit: Facade of Lysis, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

Image credit: Terraced Garden, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

Image credit: Replacement Statue, With View to Port, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

I had been forewarned before leaving London of the hike from the bay to the house, but I hadn’t fathomed quite how high or tentatively the villa sits on top of the island. As the sun-worshipping crowds from the boat made a direct route to the village for lunch - and to sardine themselves onto the slither of shingle beach by the port - I started to hike up the small avenues and pathways to Tiberio Capri, one of the highest and certainly the most easterly point of the island.

The higher I walked, the lesser the crowds. It started to feel like I was walking to the edge of the island and possibly running out of pathway, particularly as the luxurious looking houses started to become fewer and fewer. But then, at the very end of all the winding uphill paths, you reach a single wrought iron gate, and you’re on the fringe of Villa Lysis.

Built in 1905 to the specification set out by industrialist and poet Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, the house was penned as his escape. A proverbial hideaway, Lysis was built because Jacques was being self-exiled from France as the result of a sex scandal. He moved to Italy and to Capri because he was being socially (and we suspect legally) shunned from mainland France. The extreme purpose of its being built, and its intentioned remote and all the while exposed location, means that this is an all the more mysterious and enchanting house to discover. It might just be me, but a house or home that is complicated to access, visit or view holds great intrigue.

Lysis, which has been described as both elegant and reserved, housed both Jacques and his Roman lover, Nino Cesarini. Although intended as a retreat from prying eyes and gossip, the villa quickly became a hangout and haunt for intellectuals, artists and poets who visited the island.

Architecturally speaking it’s a ‘blend’ of styles - mainly Art Nouveau with design cues from Neoclassical - and the designer is an unknown entity. For a while it was thought that the French artist and illustrator Edouard Chimot might be responsible, but there’s no mention of who the architect was. We do know that the garden was designed by Mimi Ruggiero, who is responsible for planting the laurel and myrtle in honour of Venus.

Image credit: Vaulted Parlour, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

Image credit: Detail of Interior Mosaic and Plaster, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

The interiors, which are not vast but feel somewhat sprawling, have elements of Louis XVI, Neoclassic, Greek, Nouveau and Vienesse detailed into their interior makeup. There’s a large use of marble and each of the rooms, particularly the main vaulted and collumned Salon on the Ground Floor and the Master Bedroom on the First Floor, make use of the dramatic sea views.

During the build of Lysis Jacques started to dabble in opium, one of the reasons that the basement floor of the villa is designed as a tiled ‘opium den’, and later became addicted to cocaine. He suffered an overdose in 1923 and, as a result, the house then began to exchange hands regularly from one owner to the next. From 1934 onwards the house fell into a state of disrepair, most likely because of its remote and impractical location, and by the 1980s it had fallen into a near ruinous state. When you see rare images of the house, taken during the mid-century, it appears almost ghost-like and haunting. In 2001 the Municipality of Capri managed to purchase Lysis and began a process of restoration.

The house itself has little furniture in it, however it has a strong sense of history pouring out of it. From the ornate latin inscription above the front door ‘Amori et Dolori Sacrum’, which translates to ‘sacredness of love and pain’, to the rather fabulous tiled flooring. The most striking tiling is possibly rolled out on the first floor terrace, overlooking the jaw-dropping view. There’s also, amongst other things, the most wonderful bathroom design to discover. It has a Roman bath built for two.

Image credit: Terrace View, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

Image credit: Roman Bath, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

Image credit: The Ionic Columns, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

Image credit: Detail of Tiled Terrace, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

The gold detailed mosaic ionic columns, which align to form the portico, seem to shroud the house and are particularly glamorous. The shimmering gold detailing makes it all the more surreal to think that you are standing on one of the most exposed facades off the Italian coast. But nonetheless, the exposed facade is adorned with gold mosaic detail because this house is glamorous, in the most discerning of ways.

Image credit: Detail of the Ionic Columns, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

And then there’s the garden, which really plays an equal part in the experience of Lysis. Perched atop the steep and sloping plot of land, the garden falls away to a sheer drop and you are left fixed on the bay of capri - a direct gull’s eye view from the front facade of the house.

Image credit: View from The Front Doorway of Lysis, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

Image credit: Terraced Garden (with view to Naples), Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

One of Lysis’ most defining features is possibly the steep flight of stairs, on the edge of the garden that falls away to cliff edge, which lead to a circular ionic columned viewing platform. Beware the sheer drop, it’s not for the faint hearted or those that might be scared of heights.

Image credit: Circular Viewing Platform, Visit Villa Lysis, Rory Robertson

One of the most intriguing houses I have ever visited, and certainly distinctive, Lysis has a wonderful story and narrative to tell. If you’re an interiors fiend then it should be on your list of places to see.

Feature: Rory Robertson

Photography: Rory Robertson

With special thanks to Villa Lysis Capri.

Visit Villa Lysis, a historical villa that clings to the cliffs atop Capri

© Rory Robertson 2023